Saturday, November 25, 2006

I caught one of the Guns N' Roses - Hammerstein Ballroom warmup shows earlier this year and thought the band was pretty good (not great). It is hard to take the band too seriously with Axl being the only original member and Chinese Democracy now being about 10 years behind schedule. (Can anyone say Boston - Third Stage?) Guns N' Roses still put on a pretty good rock show but they are nowhere near the caliber they were when they headlined stadiums in the early 90's.

I was quite amused to read that Axl is kicking the Eagles of Death Metal off the tour after just one show as the GnR audience didn't respond well to the band. Blabbermouth reports that Axl reportedly said something to the effect of, "So how'd you like THE PIGEONS OF SHIT METAL? Don't worry, that's the last show they're playing with us."

Let's compare...Josh Homme has been consistently building his chops by recording and touring with both the Eagles and Queens of the Stoneage. Sebastian Bach hasn't done much of anything (outside of the Rocky Horror Pipcture Show) since being kicked out of Skid Row and The Last Hard Men has to be one to the worst CDs that I have heard in the last few years. The Suicide Girls are just strippers who strip to punk tunes.

So...what is the lesson here? On a tour where punk strippers are one of the "opening acts" and are scheduled to go on right before the headliner, any opening band has to question whether the audience will be receptive anything they can't drunkenly sing along to.

OpEd: I saw the Eagles of Death Metal headline CBGB just about two years ago and the crowd couldn't get enough of the band. Hopefully the Eagles will find better acts to tour with.